More and more people are taking “Social Media Vacations.” They are abandoning their social media accounts and other internet services. Some are taking weeks or months off. Others are deleting all posts and pictures and closing their accounts for good. The early years of social media's euphoric rise have passed and are now being followed by a grim mass exodus.
The extent of the exodus is now nearing the epidemic proportions and this is just the beginning Nearly everyone knows someone who is taking a break from the social media. Barely a day passes without an article in a major internet news or editorial site, describing someone's reasons for leaving the virtual embrace of the social media world. And those reasons are just as numerous as they are unique.
Some social media users simply just grew up. They are looking for jobs and social standing in the real, brick and mortar world. All of a sudden, the youthful thoughtless embrace with the virtual world is coming back to haunt them. The relationship wasn't as casual as they thought. It wasn't as anonymous, as safe or as consequence-free as they imagined. It left some nasty marks. Bad pictures on the walls. Some thoughtless words, dropped in a blog, that now, years later have come back with a vengeance. The doors of schools, of offices, of friends and future opportunities are closing before their noses.
For some realization came too late. For some, it came in time. Some social media users just grew wiser. And more and more are realizing that the honeymoon with social media is now over. Realizations of privacy, of safety, of real world concerns have started to creep in a while ago, and are now avalanching. We left too much, too deep a trace already. Whenever we are looking for a job, talk to a client, meet an important other, they Google us, they Facebook us, they Youtube us, and then they Google Plus on us some more before deciding to Link-in in real life.
Some social media users just grew tired. Tired of living their life through others. Tired to being tied to hundreds of fake friends. Friends they have never met, but friends who seem to anxiously await to hear of each move, of every plate of food they eat in every restaurant. Tired of the friends that they had no choice, but friend. Tired of living their life through others. Tired of envying the “friends,” whose life are just too perfect for this world. Tired of being envied by others. Tired of the burden of living in two worlds at once, and missing on real life.
More and more people are attempting to bail out. Some temporarily, and some for good. But web 2.0 sites are holding onto users tight. A myriad of patents have been filed to lure the users in, and to expand and to hold on to user's virtual presence. And none that we know of, to help the individual escape, or lessen social media grip on individual.
Who hasn't wished sometimes that they could simply flick a switch, and in a moment dim out the lights in their virtual world. Delete stale posts, block access to the pictures, prevent the spouse from browsing the ancient posts on dating sites . . . . Sometimes we wish we could get out quick. Within a minute. Before that other person does the dreadful search. But there are so many sites we left our traces on. Who can remember all the sites and passwords? Who easily can navigate through maze of options? Which sites allow to delete and which will force to keep us all we ever posted. And there are virtually no tools to help. At least there were no tools to help until the system, set out below, was invented.
Accordingly, there is a long-felt and unmet need in the art for the system and method that could simplify, coordinate and accelerate user's withdrawal from social media and other internet services. Such system must be simple to use and provide pre-coordinated, but quick withdrawal of the user's presence across numerous and various internet services, thus protecting the user's privacy and social interests. The system and method of the present invention meet all of these requirements and provide numerous additional benefits.